2013 Outstanding Alumnus Award Winner
Dr. Charles Handorf’s is living out his childhood wish of having the biggest chemistry set of any kid on the block. The University of Tennessee Health Science Center pathology professor and chair of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine found his way to pathology through studying medicinal chemistry.
By the fall of his senior year at Rice University, Handorf realized “basic science didn’t seem ‘real’ enough to me, although I loved it,” he says. After working summers in the lab of the Department of Medicinal Chemistry at UT “it had become a foregone conclusion that I would go to graduate school and work in the lab.” He pursued dual degrees in medicinal chemistry and medicine with a specialty in pathology. He received his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the Health Science Center.
“Pathology has been a wonderful fit for me because I love the challenge of having hard problems to solve every day—whether in medical practice, academics, science, medical or hospital politics, or administration,” Handorf says. “By far, my favorite days are still the ones when I am of service making diagnoses in the operating room.”
A long way from his first job as a toy salesman and delivery truck driver, Handorf has held a number of executive appointments at Methodist LeBonheur Healthcare, including chief of staff and associate pathologist. He is also the former president of the Tennessee Medical Association and Duckworth Pathology Group. Handorf received the 2003 Sherard Physician of the Year Award from Methodist Healthcare, is a past recipient of the UTHSC College of Medicine Lange Award for Outstanding Scholarship, and was a Memphis Business Journal Health Care Heroes nominee in 2007.
The Memphis native still would like to teach a high school chemistry class, and he hopes to one day get the privilege of “holding a grandchild in my arms.”
The father of two says his proudest accomplishment is raising his children in partnership with his beloved wife of almost 37 years, Miriam. “They will remember me,” he says, “long after all of you have forgotten me completely.”
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